March is Colon Cancer Awareness Month.
Why is it that when our children are young, talk about poop is commonplace? But once they are potty-trained, we rarely speak about it. Why are we so uncomfortable to discuss these issues with our spouses, children or doctors? Read →

I was instant messaging with my husband, Alex, while in the hotel room in Oklahoma City on February 19, 2004. I was accompanying our son Ty, age 6 and the youngest of my three boys, who was touring with the show Miss Saigon. Read →

The Kennedy Cancer Center in Washington Twp, NJ, has shown and continues to show a dedication to helping others by providing amazing services to the community with free programs for cancer patients and their caregivers.
I created, developed, and currently facilitate Art Discovery TM workshops at Kennedy since September 2009. Read →

I want to thank Norma for inviting me to guest blog. I regularly tell Max’s story, neuroblastoma in children, to new employees at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), in addition to nursing students at the University of Pennsylvania.
In March 2001, when he was 10-years-old, my son Max came home from school complaining of hip pain. Read →

I was 37 years old when I found a lump in my breast during a self-exam. I wasn’t someone who checked regularly, so it had been about three months since my last self-exam. I went through the usual process of having the OB-GYN check it out, then the surgeon. Read →

1999 was going to be a wonderful year for our family. On January 1st my husband, mother and I moved into our new home. By June I was expected to give birth to our first child. That alone was an amazing feat. Read →

I was 13 years old when my mother told us that she had metastatic breast cancer. While I was growing breasts, her breast was the very thing that was killing her. My mom looked cancer straight in the eye and never backed down. Read →

When my mother Barbara Chierici was first diagnosed with cancer in 1988, her first concern wasn’t for herself. After telling my dad they must have been reading the results wrong, she looked at the doctor and said, “I have to be ok. Read →

This note is in loving memory of my mom, Bev Koh, a woman who survived breast cancer in 1989. Although both her breasts were removed at that time, she never looked back because she was grateful to have survived such a terrible disease. Read →

My mom called me when I was in my third year of medical school to say she found a lump in her breast. I can remember coming home to accompany her to the breast surgeon. Glancing at her mammogram in the parking lot, as we walked in to her consultation, I felt a pit in my stomach. Read →